Motherboard Review – Page 114 – Home of the Motherboard Review Database. PC News, Reviews & More

AMD Ryzen 9 5950X

November 24, 2020November 17, 2020 by Stephen

Traditionally, this was a task handled by HEDT systems in the past, but since the launch of Zen 2+ and the 3950X, AMD has brought the ability to the mainstream platforms and continues it with the Ryzen 9 5950X.

As many of you know, the Ryzen 9 5950X is a 2x CCD 1x IOD chiplet design, the full Zen 3. It offers 16 cores and 32 threads with SMT supporting a base clock of 3.4GHz and a boost clock of 4.9GHz. 64MB of L3 cache is shared across all cores with 24 PCIe 4.0 lanes for support.

EVGA Z490 Dark

November 25, 2020November 16, 2020 by Stephen

In this review I’ll be looking at what might be considered the only game in town for Extreme Overclocking, the EVGA Z490 Dark. Much like what DFI did with their LanParty boards the EVGA Dark is what I would call a revision and enhancement to the EVGA Z490 FTW that improves and tunes the motherboard to handle all sorts of overclocking and extreme system builds while still offering out of box performance for fans of high-end hardware.

ASUS ROG STRIX Z490-I GAMING

November 13, 2020 by Stephen

A rare review of something compact does not begin with words about the difficulties of pushing top straps and equipment into a compact format and the use of non-standard engineering solutions for this. This is doubly relevant when we are talking not about a slightly truncated mini-ATX motherboard, where, in general, even without liters of sweats from engineers, everything climbs so well, but about choosing a real hardcore player!

Intel Xeon W-1290

November 13, 2020 by Stephen

To make sure it won’t be boring until the next Intel Rocket Lake generation, we looked at an alternative to the numerously tested Intel Core i5, i7 and i9 on OCinside.de today. We are talking about the Intel Xeon W-1290 processor, which is almost the professional counterpart to an Intel Core i9-10900. As platform we have chosen the brand new ASRock W480 Creator LGA1200 high-end motherboard with W480 chipset. If the Intel Xeon can convince and if it is even suitable for gaming, we show in the following review.

ASUS ROG STRIX B550-I GAMING

November 13, 2020 by Stephen

Starting at the top, the B550i Gaming currently supports Ryzen 3000 series, but ASUS does have plans to support Zen 3 with an upcoming BIOS update. As noted above, this motherboard is on the B550 chipset platform and, as such, supports DDR4 memory – 2133 JEDEC as a minimum with 5100+ speeds capable with overclocking.

NZXT N7 Z490

November 25, 2020November 13, 2020 by Stephen

Motherboards are rarely aesthetically pleasing. Sure, we’ve long since moved on from green PCBs and cream-colored slots, but the majority of MOBOs still look ugly. Most opt for a “gamer” look, which is fine for some folks, but what about those who value a minimalist and clean PC build? Enter the N7 Z490 motherboard from NZXT, with its frankly beautiful design.

ASRock B550 Taichi

November 12, 2020 by Stephen

Following its usual Taichi design scheme, Asrock festoons the B550 Taichi with gears along with a black, steel-gray, and gold color scheme. Aesthetics are a matter of opinion, but personally I feel this board looks spectacular. Black is the dominant color, but there’s enough gray that the board doesn’t feel overly dark, nor does the amount of steel feel overwhelming.

ASUS TUF GAMING B550M-PLUS (WI-FI)

November 10, 2020 by Stephen

The ASUS TUF Gaming B550M-Plus is pretty special in that regard. Not only is it MicroATX, but it’s also rocking AMD’s B550 chipset, a slightly more affordable option compared to the range-topping X570. That makes this motherboard rather affordable, but not quite as affordable as some of the competition.

AMD Ryzen 5000 Series on AMD 300 Series Boards?

November 10, 2020 by Stephen

The A320M-HDV R4.0 is a budget motherboard that retails for $64.99 and features a rather modest six-phase power delivery subsystem. However, the A320M-HDV R4.0 does support the Ryzen 9 3950X. Technically, it should be able to handle the Ryzen 5000 chips without a sweat. Logically, PCIe 4.0 is disabled due to the nature of the motherboard. Whether the processor works flawlessly or not is uncertain since the forum user didn’t provide any comment or benchmarks.

ASUS ROG MAXIMUS XII EXTREME

November 10, 2020 by Stephen

The ASUS ROG MAXIMUS XII EXTREME is the latest iteration of the Maximus line which began about 10 years ago as one of the earliest entries into the ROG family. This one utilizes Intel’s Z490 Express chipset and supports it’s LGA 1200 socket processors and Intel’s 10th Gen Comet Lake CPUs. This is not what you would call a value solution. The Maximus XII Extreme costs of $742.99 on Amazon at the time of this writing.